Describing today’s
events as “a defining day in America's war against terrorism,” Attorney
General John Ashcroft created national headlines by announcing the
arrest of four out of six members of an al Qaeda “sleeper cell.” Three
non Islamic suspects were arrested in Portland, Oregon, and one of
Middle Eastern descent in Michigan. The two other Middle Easterners
are still being sought outside the country. I’m on the scene here
in Portland and it is my assessment that this is a molehill of a story
being made into a mountain. If this is a “defining day” in the war
on terrorism, Ashcroft has yet to deal with real terrorists. Even
by Ashcroft’s admission there is no evidence any of these suspects
had any criminal intentions here in America. The three in Portland
were playing a supporting role for the other three Muslims who have
been trying to join either the Taliban or al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The Portland suspects had a few small arms they had used for target
practice, but no explosives or terror devices.

From the police
response, you would think they were up against a small army. Tens
of state and local police, sheriff’s deputies, and FBI agents, covered
by helicopters overhead, surrounded an apartment complex in Portland
(within blocks of a mosque, providing a convenient media talking point
on innuendo) in a large assault early this morning. That’s supposed
to be the big terrorist story. Despite the lack of a crime, the entire
area is cordoned off.

This kind of
overblown response appears to be part of an emerging pattern within
Homeland Security, attempting to maximize the impact of any potential
terrorist arrest, however insignificant--certainly not worth a national
press conference, unless one is desperate to “show and tell.” Ashcroft
and his terrorist task force teams seem consumed with trying to find
any evidence to justify the government’s constant terror alerts, even
though no organized terrorists acts have been committed on US soil
since 9/11. Bringing into play multiple police forces, even when not
needed, is also part of the Ashcroft modus operandi to showcase the
federal government’s new “partnership between federal and local police
forces.”

The Justice Department
micromanaged this piece of propaganda masterfully. First, they sent
out tantalizing news releases to local TV stations all around the
country early this morning alerting them to this “terror related”
arrest. The world was kept on the edge of their chair as early morning
news talking heads told everyone they knew nothing except that a major
“police action” was ongoing in Portland, Oregon, and that they were
waiting for details from a special news conference to be broadcast
by US Attorney General Ashcroft at 11 AM eastern time. Of course every
TV station in America had the feed of the helicopter video covering
the scene at the apartment complex – with nothing going on except
one lowly car being searched.

The propaganda
value of this engineered media stunt became obvious at the onset of
Ashcroft’s news conference. Relying heavily on a written script, he
began reviewing, cataloging and lauding the government’s efforts on
the war on terror, thus far. And then the big announcement – that
an indictment had been issued for six suspects (five of whom are US
citizens). Their single crime, restated and expanded in four different
ways, was “planning to join with and give assistance to al Qaeda.”
The FBI had undoubtedly been tapping the suspects’ phones for months,
so they do have their intentions on tape. Incidentally, this is the
first “terrorist” arrest in country which the Justice Department has
given any details at all about what they know about a terror subject
sufficient to justify an arrest – and it was very sketchy. The media’s
hopes for more answers during the question and answer section were
dashed as Ashcroft answered every question with the standard refrain:
“I cannot reveal anything more while the indictment is in progress.”
The question and answer section was obviously held just for the sake
of appearances.

The story was
leaked that the suspects had converted to Islam, but this was obviously
more talk than reality. The local mosque closest to the apartment
said these men had never taken instructions in Islam, that none of
them were known to the local Muslim community, but that they had recently
come to the Mosque on one or two occassions but were not communicative.

The impression
was given by the term “sleeper cell,” that these six were ready to
pounce on innocent Americans. Apparently not so. They were most likely
John Lindh copycats trying to join or support the Taliban in Afghanistan
in solidarity with Osama bin Laden. The extent of their military training,
except for one ex-military type, was some pistol and rifle shooting
practice while trespassing on someone’s private property in Oregon.

A close analysis
of the names of the 3 arrested in Oregon leads to other crucial
issues not even raised by the establishment media. The 3 Americans
seem to have taken noms de’guerre with Marxist overtones (Jeffrey
Leon Battle, Patrice Lumumba Ford, and October Martinique Lewis).
Patrice Lumumba was a Marxist dictator in the Congo, and "October
Martinique" refers to famous October, 1794 rebellion of the slaves
on the island of Martinique. "October" is a women who happens to be
Jeffry Battle’s ex-wife. Thus, it appears that this Portland groups
is composed of old line Marxists who have a history of switching names
and causes as necessary in order to fight against America. There are
thousands of anti-police thugs and leftists who are potential sympathizers
with any anti-US cause. But, few of these match match the typical
profile of international terrorists in terms of prior history and
training. Ashcroft is grasping at straws.

They may well
have wanted to join al Qaeda, at least temporarily, but such intentions
don’t constitute a “sleeper cell” in the normal terminology of terrorism.
Sleeper cell members are highly trained (usually outside the target
country) in explosives, sniping, and sabotage. They are then infiltrated
into the country to begin their attacks. The government has already
admitted they have no evidence that any terrorist operations were
being planned by these six suspects. In fact, the US has experienced
no such attacks since 9/11, a fact which is, in itself, the largest
non sequitur in the government’s claim that there are hundreds of
al Qaeda cells within the country. If there are, where are they and
why are they not attacking? The government attributes this lack of
terrorism to the success of FBI efforts to uncover such cells. But
so far they have only arrested a dozen Americans, and none fit the
profile of a trained terrorist. Even if the FBI were actively hunting
al Qaeda, that still doesn’t explain why we are not subjected to constant
terror attacks. In countries like Israel, where security is 100 times
more effective and concentrated than in the US, there are weekly
terrorist incidents. Why not here, where security is almost non-existent
(except for harassing American grandmothers at airports)? Real terrorism
is almost impossible to prevent. Do we have a form of controlled terrorism?
If so, who is doing the controlling and for what purposes?

Ashcroft has
made much of shoe bomber Richard Read’s confession that he was a member
of al Qaeda and that he really intended to blow up the trans-Atlantic
flight he was on. But the first part is suspect. Read’s confession
was part of a scripted plea bargain, in which he had to agree to state
a connection with al Qaeda. Frankly, I don’t believe he was working
for al Qaeda, except on his own independent initiative. A formally
trained terrorist as part of al Qaeda would have known enough about
explosives to realize that you can’t set off plastic explosives
in your shoe by lighting them with a match; a blasting cap is
needed. If this is the best excuse for a terrorist the government
can come up with, I remain convinced that something is very wrong
with this “war on terror.”